Illinois State Treasurer

Imagine finding a little surprise cash in your mailbox this summer—thanks to a new initiative from the state treasurer.

These checks are really going out to 140,000 Illinois residents for unclaimed property, and the Illinois State Treasurer wants you to know you can go ahead and cash them because this is for real and not a scam.

While almost all of us are aware of the Purple Heart medal is given to those who are wounded or killed fighting on behalf of the United States of America, there are a few other things about the Purple Heart that you may not be aware of.

Maybe you have unclaimed money that's being held by the Illinois Treasurer's Office and didn't even know it. If that's the case, you also may not have known that up until recently the state didn't have to pay any interest on those funds.

Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs' office holds more than 100 military medals and ribbons that were surrendered as unclaimed property, and there's nothing they'd like better than to reunite the medals with the men and women who were awarded them, or get them to the servicemember's family.

The property returned includes inactive back accounts, unpaid insurance benefits, or the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes.

1st Lt. Walter B. Ingledew Jr. died after being shot down over France 75 years ago. Monday, his family got his long-lost medals back.